Filipino Bloodline in the News

By: Veronica Leighton

 

Arecent Chicago visitor and CPRTV guest interview is Diana Lee Inosanto, the daughter of legendary martial artist, Dan Inosanto and Sue Ann Reveal. She is also the goddaughter of global icon, the late Bruce Lee. Dan was such close friends to the late Bruce Lee, that in honor of his friend, he named his daughter, and first child, “Diana Lee”.

Diana was in Chicago re-promoting the movie “Sensei,” which she wrote, produced, directed and starred in in 2008. She came with her equally popular husband, Ron Balicki, Martial Arts Instructor to the Stars and a former Chicagoan. Both of them do movie stunts. You must have seen Ron always playing “bad guy” against Steven Seagal.

While her father influenced her martial arts education, her father’s sister, actress, Lilia Inosanto would influence Inosanto’s education in the theater arts. Inosanto was encouraged by her Aunt to study with legendary Broadway acting coach and author, Michael Shurtleff . Later, she would go on to work with East West Players & Lodestone Theater Ensemble, continuing to grow as an actress and fight choreographer. She also found success working as a stunt actress on popular film and TV shows.

By the end of 2010, as an emerging producer, director and writer on The Sensei, Inosanto would win awards and accolades at film festivals like LA Femme International Film Fest, Hoboken International Film Festival, Philadelphia Asian American Film Fest, San Francisco’s Frameline, Germany’s Verzaubert Film Festival and New York’s Newfest to name a few.

So powerful was her message on The Sensei, that the Asian American Justice Center presented Ms. Inosanto with the 2011 American Courage Award, in Washington, D.C. where members of Congress and humanitarian activist were present, to honor her bravery and dedication to the cause of civil rights and use of incredible creative aptitude to deliver the message of advancing social justice. (Taken from Mini Biography By: Dr. Steve Gold).

Diana Lee Inosanto

Australian-Filipino Jason Day’s PGA triumph leaves Jordan Spieth in awe at the recent win in PGA Championship in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Sportswriters described it, “What was so incredible about Jason Day’s record-setting 20-under par performance here Sunday was the way he boatraced the (now) No. 1 player in the world. Every single time it looked like Spieth had a glimpse of a path back, Day dropped a barrelful of bricks in his way. The pressure of never having won a major, of the final Sunday of the PGA Championship, of Spieth waiting for him to fail – it bounced off Day like raindrops off a golf umbrella.

” JASON DAY’S Filipino mother, Dening, said she hadn’t spoken to him but he’d sent a text telling her ”how I felt inside” and ”I love you very much”. ”He doesn’t say much but he’s a happy boy. His whole life is ahead of him,” his mother said. His mother, who had eight relatives that died in Haiyan typhoon in the Philippines, appeared and appealed with Jason, on TV interviews during those catastrophic times. ****

This one is a heart-rending story, a story that was well that ended well… Nine-year-old Daniel Cabrera, a typical poor boy in the Philippines, but a determined and tenacious student, wanted to get out of poverty by going to school and studying hard.

His dad died in jail, he sleeps in a shack and he does his homework by the light of a McDonald’s restaurant in Mandaue City. Until when passerby 20-year-old medical technology student, Joyce Torrefranca, took a picture of him and posted it on Facebook, captioned, “I got inspired by a kid.” It went viral and the rest is history.

Daniel Cabrera will now be able to fulfil his dream of becoming a policeman after donations of cash, school supplies and a college scholarship poured in, his mother, Christina Espinosa, said, “We’re overjoyed. I don’t know what I will do with all of these blessings.” Ms Espinosa is a 42-year-old grocery store employee and domestic helper. “Now, Daniel will not have to suffer just to finish his studies.” ******

Jason Day

BATAAN DEATH MARCH, PEARL HARBOR & SOCIAL SECURITY REMEMBRANCES

As we celebrate and honor the World War II veterans who fought and died in Bataan Death March in 1942 at the Maywood Bataan Day Organization on September 13 in Maywood Veterans Park (please read Elsie Sy-Niebar’s Notebook column on page 14), we are likewise reminded of the 70th anniversary of the conflict’s end in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

From AP, “U.S. and Japanese cities linked by World War II marked the 70th anniversary of the conflict’s end by vowing to remember the past and promote peace.

Mayors and city council members from Honolulu and Nagaoka joined the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in laying wreaths at Pearl Harbor. Fireworks resembling white chrysanthemum flowers were launched at the end of the ceremony. White chrysanthemums are often presented at memorial services in Japan to honor the dead.

Nagaoka is the hometown of the late Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor that launched the U.S. into the war in 1941. U.S. planes bombed the city during the last weeks of the war, killing nearly 2,000 people. Today, it is one of Honolulu’s sister cities and is famous for fireworks.

Nagaoka Mayor Tamio Mori recounted his city’s history to reporters after the ceremony and said peace was indispensable to its citizens.

“So we wanted to come to Pearl Harbor — the place where the war began — on this 70th anniversary of the end of the war to honor victims from the U.S. and Japan and send peace around the world,” he said.

Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said the ceremony was to honor and remember the past. “Because we cannot understand how to go forward unless we know where we came from,” Caldwell said.

Constant and ongoing communication is required to ensure peace, he said. The sister cities, he said, have built strong foundations for a bridge to peace.

Part of Pearl Harbor, which is still an active naval base, opened to the public for a display of Nagaoka’s fireworks. The pyrotechnics honored the war’s victims and celebrated 70 years of peace and friendship.

The war ended when Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945, which was still Aug. 14 in Hawaii and other parts of the U.S.

The Dec. 7, 1941, bombing of Pearl Harbor killed about 2,400 sailors, Marines and soldiers on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

Around the world, there were 15 million battle deaths and 45 million civilian deaths from the war, according to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.” ***

Social Security turns 80 this month!

Referring to Mayra Salazar’s column last month (page 33), yes, SS is getting there in years.

According to Washington Examiner, many people are partying and many are not. The system is a financial train wreck and a user nightmare. It’s also incredibly outdated, sexist, and unfair across and within generations.

It does force us, via our FICA contributions, to save and purchase longevity, disability, and survivor insurance. And, yes, we need to be forced, because far too many of us are failing to save and insure adequately on our own. But that doesn’t mean that Social Security should be maintained in its current form through the end of time. On the contrary, the current system should be retired and replaced.

Lots of people know Social Security is financially stressed. What they don’t know, and the “they” seems to include the socalled Social Security “trustees,” is that the system is $25.8 trillion in the red.”

This $25.8 trillion is the present value difference between everything the system is promising to pay over time and everything it’s projecting to collect in taxes.This figure, by the way, is net of the current value of the system’s peanutsized “trust”.’

KALAMANSI TREE IN A POT

Before I sign off and before summer ends, let me share with you a picture of our special kalamansi tree that always bears more than 200 fruits. We call it our miracle tree and has been adorning our house as a Christmas tree for many years now, growing from a small pot.

It looks like it will give us about 400 fruits this year, just counting its fragrant blooms… ##